Page 27 of Child In Jeopardy
Chapter Nine
Slater sat in the living room of the safe house and continued to scour the reports that were pouring in. Reports from Duncan, Luca, Julia and Detective Thayer. Nothing was as nerve-rattling as Julia’s earlier news.
I don’t want another Alicia on my hands.
Still, Slater was hoping he’d find something to either link Leonard to Alicia’s and his dad’s murders or be able to clear him as a suspect. After all, everything was circumstantial. Even that remark about Alicia. Leonard could have possibly just been worried about Buck murdering someone else, and in this case, that someone else would be Stephanie.
But there was a problem with that theory.
How had Leonard even known about Buck’s connection to Alicia? Slater had only recently learned of it himself. And if Leonard had indeed suspected that Buck murdered Alicia, why hadn’t he given that info to the cops?
That was one of at least a dozen questions for which Slater didn’t have an answer, and it was the reason he was glad Lana and he had decided to delay the trip back to Saddle Ridge so they could immerse themselves here in the investigation. Exactly what they’d been doing for the past three hours.
Getting to the safe house, though, hadn’t exactly been a piece of cake. Within minutes of leaving the police station with Sonya as backup, they realized they were being followed. Slater had called in the plates to Thayer, who’d quickly informed him that the vehicle belonged to a PI agency that Leonard frequently employed.
Since Slater hadn’t wanted the PI or Leonard to know the location of the safe house, that’d meant trying to lose it. Not easy in Austin traffic. So Slater had called in the big guns. He’d had Thayer send out a patrol cop to pull over the vehicle. The moment that’d happened, Slater and Sonya had sped away.
Thankfully, that’d been the only drama of the afternoon, and now Lana sat across from him, working on her laptop and probably digging through the same reports he was. He was hoping a second pair of eyes would catch something he might miss. Hoping, too, that they’d get that one vital piece of info that would blow this case wide open.
Slater hated that the hornet’s nest revelations had come from a hacker. As a cop, he wanted to find this BoBo and arrest him. But as the son of a murdered man, he was grateful for what they might be able to use to build a case against Leonard. So far, though, they didn’t have nearly enough for that.
Because he was a cop, Slater had had a fierce debate with himself when it came to telling Detective Thayer about the hacked emails. No way could she use any part of them in her investigation, but it hadn’t felt right to keep them from her. And Lana had agreed. Even though it might ultimately cast a negative light on Sencor for dealing with hackers like BoBo, Thayer needed to have the big picture.
Thayer, of course, hadn’t exactly thanked him for spilling details that would essentially muddy the investigative waters and might lead to nothing. Still, Slater figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a third person, Thayer, looking at this new information with the hopes of verifying it. So far, though, verification simply hadn’t happened.
“Ted Bennington,” Slater said, hoping that by saying it aloud, it would jog something. Lana immediately looked up from her laptop, her attention zooming straight to him. “He’s worked foryour father for over twenty-five years.” And he was the PI in the hacked emails. “Do you know him?”
“I’ve met him a couple of times when he came to visit my dad. He seemed all business, and he certainly never said anything about his actual job.”
That made sense. Leonard wouldn’t keep a blabbermouth on the payroll. “Bennington would have worked for him when Alicia was murdered, and we know that Stephanie went to a party at Alicia’s. So, if it weren’t for those three last words in the email, I would dismiss what Leonard said as some cautionary tale of him not wanting Stephanie to end up dead like Alicia.”
Lana nodded. Then sighed. “But those three last words are there.On my hands,” she recited. “That sounds a lot more personal than a cautionary tale.”
It did, and that’s why Slater was piecing together other theories. “Bennington or another PI could have seen or heard something that would ID Buck as Alicia’s killer. I’m having a hard time figuring out why they wouldn’t have taken that info to the cops, but maybe what they saw or overheard involved Stephanie. Not as a killer,” he was quick to add.
She nodded again, and her forehead bunched up as she gave that some thought. “But maybe the PI heard or saw something that would in turn incriminate Stephanie. My dad would have definitely tried to cover that up, and in doing so, he might have covered up Buck’s guilt. That could work.” She paused. “But then why would Buck go after your father?”
Slater shrugged. “Maybe my dad was asking the wrong questions, and Buck got spooked.”
“And maybe my father got spooked, too,” Lana added. She set her laptop aside and leaned forward. “Just speculation here, but whatever the PI or my father learned about Alicia could make him some kind of accessory after the fact. That’s some serious jail time.”
“Yeah, it would be.” And that led Slater to another point. “Alicia’s body was never found, so maybe that’s where Leonard comes in. Maybe he or his PI helped Buck dispose of the body in some way.” He stopped and scrubbed his hand over his face. “But again, his reason for doing that would be to protect Stephanie.”
Lana made a sound of agreement. “Stephanie never once mentioned anything about Alicia’s murder, and I think she would have let something slip if she had witnessed it.”
Slater made his own sound of agreement. “But what if Buck convinced Leonard that Stephanie had been involved in some way? That would spur Leonard to do a cover-up.”
“It would, and it would also explain why my father wanted to monitor Buck. Maybe he wanted to make sure Buck didn’t get too close to Stephanie.” She stopped. “Of course, all the monitoring didn’t stop Buck from killing her.”
Slater heard the pain in Lana’s voice. Saw it on her face, too, and he set his own laptop aside to go to her. Yes, it wasn’t exactly a safe move, not with them being alone, but he hated to see her suffer like this. However, Slater had barely reached Lana before his phone rang, and when he saw Detective Thayer’s name on the screen, he knew it was a call he needed to take.
“You’re on speaker,” Slater said when he answered. And he hoped she was calling with good news.
“I just interviewed Taylor Galway,” the detective said.
Surprised, Slater shook his head. “I guess she changed her mind about coming in.”
“Well, she brought three lawyers with her and spent most of the interview saying no comment, but she came in without any additional prodding.”